Rome 02 September 2015
Thales Alenia Space and Telespazio have reached an agreement with Teledife (General Directorate of Telecommunications, IT and Advanced Technologies, Italian Ministry of Defence) to supply the ground segment to the Polish Ministry of Defense for the reception and processing of data and data products generated by Italy's first and second-generation COSMO-SkyMed Earth Observation satellites.
The contract was signed by Thales Alenia Space Italia as lead company, on behalf of a temporary consortium which includes Telespazio.
The Italian space industry's selection by Poland as "international defense partner” for the COSMO-SkyMed program marks a significant step forward. The 30 million euro contract is part of a 2012 agreement signed by the Italian and Polish Ministries of Defense concerning collaboration on Earth Observation. According to this agreement, Poland may also take a significant role in the second-generation COSMO-SkyMed program, and could build the associated user segment in Poland. Teledife is the contracting agency on behalf of the Polish Ministry of Defense.
The contract announced today concerns the ground segment to be delivered to Poland to allow access to COSMO-SkyMed data. The Polish Defense User Ground Segment (P-DUGS) will be able to request images, receive satellite data and generate and store different types of products. It will be an integral part of the overall COSMO-SkyMed ground segment, based on its modular, scalable design.
Poland's user ground segment will be implemented in two phases. The first phase, planned for late 2016 or early 2017, will guarantee access to the first-generation COSMO-SkyMed satellites. The second phase, slated between the end of 2017 and early 2019, will extend access to second-generation satellites as well.
Today's contract marks the first concrete collaboration between the Italian and Polish defense ministries on space programs. It also allows Telespazio and Thales Alenia Space to strengthen their presence in Poland.